I want green beans!

Of course, J doesn't eat everything, but compare to other 5-year olds he isn't a particularly picky eater either. He used to pick pepper, onion, etc. off of his food. A few months, he became very conscious about what food was good for him. He would eat all the veggie that he used to despise and say "I don't like it, but it's good for me." Yay! When I was in LA for the girls weekend, hubby drove the kids to MacDonald's. J said "Baba (Chinese for daddy), MacDonald's is fast food. Fast food isn't good for you." So hubby asked him if he wanted to go somewhere else. J tilted his head, thought about it for a second, said "It's OK for today." (!! Is that a 5-year old?)

A few weeks ago, when I took J grocery shopping, he asked for green beans. What a shocker! I was only too happy to oblige. Since then, I made a point to buy green beans every couple of weeks.

Green Beans with Ground Pork

1 lb beans
1/2 lb ground pork
1 garlic clove, minced
1 green onion, minced
1 tbsp ginger, minced (optional)
salt
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tbsp cooking wine
2 tbsp oil

Marinate:
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp cooking wine

Marinate the pork for 30 minutes.

Break the beans to about one inch long segments. Blanch or microwave till almost tender (about 5 minutes). (Traditionally, you'd fry the beans. But that's a lot of oil! Definitely not healthy. =)

Heat 1 tbsp oil, add garlic, green onion and ginger, once aroma comes out, add pork, stir till no longer pink. Remove and drain.

Heat 1 tbsp oil, add beans to the pan, stir frequently till tender (about 1 minute). Add cooking wine and soy sauce, season with salt. Add the meat back in. Stir to mix.

Alternatively, you can use strips of ham, or slices of Chinese sausages, then no need to marinate or cook the meat first.

Grill, baby, grill!

I have a grill! Yay!!!

We are not really BBQ people. So for years, it was perfectly OK for us to not have a grill. But as I started cooking more, I often wished that I could deep fry things. (I don’t like frying in the house due to the smell and the mess caused by the splattering.) It might sound funny, but my only real requirement of the grill is the side burner. Awhile ago, I researched and researched for months, and chose the Weber Genesis for the quality. =) Hubby wasn’t convinced that we needed at the time. Yet I knew in my heart this was the grill for me. So I went ahead and bought a mat, a cover, and grill cleaning tools. Hubby thought it was funny that we had everything EXCEPT the grill. Nevertheless, he just dismissed it, and didn’t give any more thoughts. So the accessories sat in the dark in our closet collecting dust, until a month ago, when I brought up the subject of the grill again. To my surprise, hubby gave me the green light.

Last week, the grill finally came. Just like all the other reviewers said, it took about 3 hours to assemble. It was totally worth it! Such a beautiful item.

To put it through the first test, we decided to make some burgers yesterday. I haven’t been using much of the herbs I bought at Costco. This seemed to be the perfect opportunity to use up some. So I clipped some parsley, basil, dill, thyme and chive, chopped them up, and made the patties. I’m not trying to be stereotypical, but home cooking always seems more like a woman’s job to me (My dad cooks once in a while, but for everyday? That’s my mom’s responsibility.), whereas grilling seems very macho. That is until I called hubby out to grill the burger, and he told me it was my job. Fortunately, burgers are so quick to cook on my new fabulous grill that I didn’t really mind. And fortunately for my family, my random concoction turned out pretty well, and the grill was so easy to use that my lack of grilling skills didn’t seem to matter.

Burger

1 lb 80/20 ground beef
1/3 onion, finely diced
1/3 cup fresh herbs, chopped
1/2 cup bread crumb
4 tbsp water (or milk)
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp paprika
1/8 tsp marjoram

Saute the onion on low heat till transparent, set aside.

Put the bread crumb in a large bowl, add water to soak for 5 minutes.

Add to the bowl beef, onion, fresh herbs, and seasoning, mix with your hands. Form into 1 1/2 inch balls, flatten to patties.

Grill at 350F for 15 minutes, flip half way through.

Crêpes, Finally ...

D’s diary and egg allergies often limit my cooking decisions. True, I still make diary or egg-leaden desserts like creme brulee, panna cotta, or macarons from time to time. However, I try to make only things he can eat at each meal.

Recently I’ve reading more vegan cookbooks in hope of finding more desserts and baked goods that we could share as a family. One of them, The Joy of Vegan Baking, included a chapter on strudel, crêpes, blintzes, and pastries. I love crêpes, and used to make dessert ones filled with Nutella and banana or Crêpes Suzette. (But I have to admit that I never perfected the art of crêpe making. Mine were always a little thicker than the ones from crêperies, and not always impeccably round.) I would love for my kids to share my passion for crêpes. So upon seeing a vegan version, I knew I’d try it soon, and today was the day.

It’s a little shameful, but I have to confess that I rarely follow a recipe to the dot. I tend to improvise on whatever I miss. This one though, I tried to be as exact as possible with the only exception that the recipe called for 3/4 cup + 1 tbsp of flour, and I used 3/4 cup. Maybe because I didn’t sift the flour, or maybe because I didn’t let the batter rest, or maybe this is how the vegan version is supposed to be, but I thought the batter was thicker than the normal one, which made it a little difficult to get the batter to cover the pan when twirling the pan. But other than that, it tasted fine. I’m sure I could also work on my pan-twirling-skills. D wasn’t quite convinced that having crêpes is an enjoyment in life, but J loved it. So at least I was 50% successful, till next time. =)

My non-stick pan is about 5.5" at the bottom. I used 3 tbsp of batter per crêpe, and made 10 crêpes.

Wild Wheat Bakery, Cafe & Restaurant

Last week, while a few women and I were waiting for our crêpes at La Crêperie Voilà, we started talking about eateries in Kent. I was particularly interested since I never knew where to go when shopping at 99 Ranch or IKEA. (I know that Kent isn’t that far from Bellevue. But my world is so pathetically confined that I rarely drive that far.) As the Kent resident listed all the choices, one place stood out - Wild Wheat Bakery. I was sold when she mentioned the lamb burger served on a house made roll.

So today, after a few errands and a trip to 99 Ranch, I made a detour to Kent. After a wet July 4th, summer finally came. The sun was shining, everybody was out about. I got to Wild Wheat around 11:45, the place was still mostly empty. I was expecting a tiny little cutesy cafe. But what I saw was a much bigger and very open space. “Restaurant” would be much more fitting than “bakery” or “cafe”. The decor was very casual with mustard yellow walls and maroon ceiling. The art collection was a bit random, some abstract, some landscape posters.

Service was really quick. The rolls came probably within a minute of my sitting down. However, the taste fell short. They were cold and chewy. I don’t think I’m very picky when it comes to bread. All I need is for them to be warm and fluffy. I don’t care for the struggle when pulling off pieces.

The lamb burger came with fries. The fries were perfect, hot and crispy. But the burger didn’t live up that standard. Both the Mediterranean spice and cucumber dill salsa were used so sparsely that I couldn’t really taste any. To me, lamb is one meat that has to be seasoned. Cumin does wonders to lamb. My burger could definitely use some!

This was probably THE fastest sit-down meal I’ve ever had - I left the place by 12:10. As I was leaving, the place was all packed, and more people were still filing in. Wild Wheat is obviously very popular, which is rather puzzling to me. I mean the food isn’t terrible, but it isn’t any good either. And the price! $10+, for any sandwich or burger, is too much for a place like this. Oh well, if I ever pass by downtown Kent, I might give it another try, but it’s not worth a trip by itself.

(If you are curious about the crêpes at La Crêperie Voilà, well, to be honest, I was quite disappointed there too. I ordered a savory one - smoked wild salmon lox with creme fraiche and spinach, and a dessert one of sweet chestnut spread. The salmon one was bland, and insubstantial. The chestnut spread one wasn’t anything special either. I had my first crêpes at Crêpes A Go Go in Berkeley back in college. The savory crêpes are so much bigger, tastier, AND cheaper! And the nutella crêpes! I still miss those days!)

Wild Wheat Bakery, Cafe & Restaurant
202 First Ave S (Gowe Street), Kent, WA 98032
(253) 856-8919

La Crêperie Voilà
707 Pike Street, Seattle, WA 98101
(206) 447-2737